Archive for the 'BART' Category

BART invites the public to test out alternative seat sizes and surfaces for the BART train car of the future from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at San Francisco State University, Caesar Chavez student center, 1600 Holloway Ave. Drop by the mobile seat lab, sit in some seats and tell BART your preferences. Read the rest of this entry »

Extra police eyes are watching over BART following the death of Osama bin Laden. Several Bay Area police departments have voluntarily supplied officers to help BART provide heightened security at train stations and parking lots, the transit agency reported this afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

I was handed a survey Monday and told to try out options for the seat of the future for BART train cars. As I plopped myself down in the trial seats, one thing became apparent. BART seats are spacious compared to those at many mass transit systems in America.

People I interviewed at the mobile lab in a stop in Oakland said they could live with a slightly narrower seat than the current 22-inch wide BART model. But they also said they would dislike options for models as narrow as 17 to 18 inches that are in use on some other transit systems.

And the narrowest leg room option on display was postively savaged as the “airline option” to avoid.

BART invites riders to watch for a schedule of seat lab appearances at www.bart.gov/cars.

And yep, riders also being asked their opinion whether BART should do away with the hard to clean fabric seats and switch to some harder, easy to clean surface.

BART is rewarding 5,000 people with free tickets – each good for $6 worth of fares – at an environmental fair in San Francisco from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday to promote public transit. The BART Blue Sky festival will be held at Justin Herman Plaza near the Embarcadero station. Read the rest of this entry »

BART won’t need a train fare increase this year, but AC Transit will hold a public hearing 4 p.m. April 27 on a plan to raise its basic bus are from $2 to $2.10, and boost the youth pass from $15 to $20 per month. That was the upshot of news from the two transit agencies in the last 24 hours Read the rest of this entry »

BART riders on New Year’s Eve will get three hours of extended service until 3 a.m., plus extra trains and staggered train stops in downtown San Francisco to ease crowding from the popular midnight fireworks show on the Embarcadero.

People going out on Friday, New Year’s Eve, will be able to board trains until 3 a.m. Saturday throughout the rapid transit system. Read the rest of this entry »

BART is going to look at running trains past midnight on Saturdays to serve people coming back from a night on the town. If it happens, the proposal would be the first change in operating hours in 22 years, says Bob Franklin, the new BART board president. Read the rest of this entry »

You can’t put a price on the aggravation of being stuck in traffic. That comment from a Bay Area transportation official become the theme of my story today about the toll on the region from a six-day closure of the Bay Bridge for emergency repairs.

And much as that statement is true, we at the newspaper tried to take an admittedly crude stab at the cost of that aggravation. Our estimate: $7.5 million. This was based on an assumption that motorists who cross the Bay Bridge were delayed an hour a day in their commuting. Read how we made the estimate.

People who take car pools across seven Bay Area bridges may be in for an unpleasant change next year: the end of free rides for car pools during rush-hour periods. And on the Bay Bridge, regular drivers not in car pools also may in for a shock: higher tolls during peak commute periods than at other times.